Computer applications include a vast number of features, many of which require a user to perform a complicated set of steps. Performance of such steps is often not intuitive and a user therefore often does not perform the correct steps, therefore failing to accomplish a task the user intended to perform and/or causes an error.
It is conventional to provide a database of user help information so that when the user encounters an error or determines that the user requires instruction on how to proceed, the user may retrieve pertinent information from the database.
It is conventional to display user help information in response to a user request for help. This requires the user to spend time searching for the correct help topic and distracts the user from the actual performance of the tasks the user intended to perform.
It is also conventional to provide user help information in response to an action performed by a user in error. This causes time to be wasted since it requires the user to perform the action multiple times, until the user performs the action correctly. Furthermore, the user often is provided with the help information for a particular action after the user's attention is already directed to a different action, thereby causing confusion and hesitation. For example, it often occurs that a user enters data in a number of fields of an electronic form and, after all fields are filled, clicks “submit.” The error is detected and user help information is provided after the user clicks “submit.” If the error relates to one of the first fields of the form, by the time the user receives the user help information, the user's attention is no longer directed to the field and the data required for the field. Furthermore, a user often does not know how to perform a certain action and therefore makes no attempt to do so. In this instance, no error occurs, but the user nevertheless requires help which is not provided.
It is also conventional to provide user help information to help a user perform an action even before an attempt by the user to do so. For example, instructions are often displayed near a field indicating the type of information the user is to enter into the field, and/or instructions are often displayed indicating steps to be taken by the user to perform a variety of possible actions. However, to display all such possible user help instructions clutters the display, often distracting the user from the essential data displayed on the page.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a system and method that selectively and automatically provides user specific help information based on a user history.